Watertown referendum on Iraq

Watertown is the latest "me too" municipality to jump on the Iraq War referendum bandwagon.

It's final: There will be a referendum related to the Iraq War on the April ballots in Watertown.

However, the Watertown Common Council passed a related resolution Wednesday night saying that its members did not personally favor bringing the troops home immediately and that they felt this was an issue to be determined exclusively by the federal government.

That last part is important. For various reasons, the Common Council did not want to take action on a petition brought to them to either pass a resolution calling to bring the troops home or put the matter on a referendum. After a court ordered them to do one or another, the Common Council chose to pass a resolution stating that this was a federal matter, and then they put the pettition to a referendum. Given the position they were in, it is diffucult to think of a better way for them to handle it. Unfortunately for the citizens of Watertown, this means they'll still have to pay for a completely useless referendum.